Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
125 years ago
The Commoner
April 22, 1892
Thursday of last week, two droves of horses herded by half breeds with covered wagons passed through Colton en route to some point south.
The first drove, which numbered about 40 head, passed through at about 9:30 a.m., and the second drove, numbering about 20, a few hours later.
At 6 o'clock Saturday evening, a couple of men from the Potlatch reservation arrived in the town looking for stolen horses.
They claimed that a party of half breeds had taken from them 20 head of horses.
The description given by the men tallied exactly with some of the horses in the drove that passed through Colton Thursday.
They remained in Colton Saturday night and left in the morning for Walla Walla in pursuit of the thieves.
As they telephoned all points to be on the lookout for such parties, they will undoubtedly be successful in capturing them.
***
It is the aim of the trustees of the Catholic church to have operations commenced on the new edifice early in May. Ample subscriptions are believed to be forth coming, and the mission to be held next week will aid the project in a financial point of view. It is contemplated to have the building finished during the summer. The design is a very handsome one, and the new structure will be one of the finest ornaments to the northern part of the city.
***
Jos. Ryan opened the Colfax Hotel last Wednesday morning. This well-known house has undergone a thorough renovation, including new furniture, etc., and promises soon to regain its old-time popularity as “the only one-dollar-a-day house in town.” The jovial proprietor entertained a large number of friends at the opening dinner on Wednesday.
***
The proposed alterations in the Union Pacific depot have not been made, as the company intended and represented some weeks ago. The reason for this delay is that the officials of the Union Pacific have been discussing the advisability of changing the location of the main depot to the eastern side of the river, and of having the passenger depot built in the vicinity of the grain elevator. The fact is appreciated by them that the northern part of the city is growing very rapidly, and they are conscious, furthermore, that the limited area of their present grounds will preclude an appreciable extension when the future growth of the city demands greater accommodations.
100 years ago
The Colfax Commoner
April 27, 1917
Reports received by the county engineer from La Crosse indicate that the first six miles of the La Crosse-Dusty road will be graded by the first of May and that the Seattle contractor will have a force of men at work surfacing this portion of the road within a short time. There are three sub-contractors at work grading the last five miles of this road and they expect to have their work completed by the time that the first six miles are graveled.
The contractors on the Spring-Flat road still have about three miles of this road yet to surface, but the work will be rushed as rapidly as possible. The Washington Paving company is doing this work and they have been hampered by bad weather. The roads in this section of the county have been too wet to work and no attempt has been made to start the work this spring.
The permanent highway running out of Tekoa will be completed to the county line as soon as it is possible to start this work. This road extends towards Latah to connect with the Spokane county road and it is about four miles in length.
The county engineer will place a force of men at work to run out a preliminary survey of the Steptoe-Ewan road the last of this week. The line is about twenty-four miles in length and it will follow along the old Pleasant Valley road. This road follows a natural grade and there is only one hill on the entire route. Farmers along this route are strong advocates for the establishment of this road and the question of improving this road will come before the commissioners at the June meeting.
***
Farmers from all parts of the county are reporting severe losses of fall sown grain. In the western part of the county reports state that twenty-five per cent of the crop must be reseeded. Commissioner Manchester says thirty per cent of the grain south of Colfax has been frozen out. The same complaint comes from Pullman, Colton and Uniontown. At Garfield and the northern part of the county severe losses in fall sown grain are reported. N. M. Crider, a well known farmer of Thornton, says that the farmers in that part of the county have lost fifty per cent of all fall grain.
The majority of this acreage will be sown in spring wheat and the Club varieties will be sown in the fields that have been winter killed. From every section of the county come reports that the fields are too wet to work and much of the grain sown this spring must necessarily be sown late.
***
J. R. Sovereign has secured the management of the Oakesdale Tribune and the issue of last week carried his name at its mast head. Mr. Sovereign comes from a family of editors and is a worthy son of his father, one of the best known newspaper men in the state.
Oakesdale is a good town, a splendid field for a newspaper, and Mr. Sovereign will give them a live up-to-date paper. We congratulate Mr. Sovereign upon his wisdom in settling in one of the best counties in the state and wish him the success that we know he merits in his line of work. May the Tribune prosper and the residents of that city appreciate the work of the new editor.
75 years ago
April 24, 1942
Sugar will not be on the household shopping list for a week, beginning Monday, and ending Saturday, May 2. During this time sugar sales will be frozen to prepare for the national sugar rationing program.
Wholesalers, retailers, institutional and industrial users will register at the Colfax high school next Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Howard Moses, registration administration. Registration will be during the school hours, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Consumers will register at Hamilton and Martha Washington schools from May 4 to 7 under a precinct plan to be released later by Everett Taylor and Leonard Jennings, administrators for their respective schools.
Other points of registration and registrars in school district 261 are Penawawa, Sylvia Haffner, Mockonema, Mary Baker, Bethel, Carol Ferrell, Hubbard, and Sophia Delegans.
The Colfax rationing board, under whose supervision the schools are arranging registration, urge all purchases for resale and all consumers to register on the dates given, since failure to do so delays the opportunity to obtain a purchase certificate or ration card for two weeks.
Wholesale and retail sugar dealers will be required to furnish information regarding the volume of sugar business during the year 1941, and will be pro-rated for purchases in the future on a basis of their previous business. Similarly, restaurants and institutions must be prepared to show their gross sugar consumption during 1941, and will face a cut in their quota after rationing becomes effective.
***
Whitman County started furnishing its April quota to the army Tuesday morning when 20 selectees left here for final physical examinations in Spokane before going on to an undisclosed induction center.
Reporting at the office of the local draft board before their departure were: Lester Leo McRae, Pullman; William Harold Carpenter, Pullman; James Harold Wallace, St. John; George Henry Owen, Pullman; Daniel A. Lambert, Lacrosse; Martin Morasch, Seattle; Roy Warner, Albion; Daniel Benner, Endicott; Donald Talbert Cochran, Seattle; Alfred Bernard Melby, Great Falls, Mont .; D. Frank Robinson, Oakesdale; Lynn Robert Siegel, Rosalia; Robert Holstein, Cheney; Earnest Paul Bailey, Pullman; Bruce Thompson Corselius, Pullman; Frank Bolivar Ellis, Palouse; Henry Milton Conover, formerly of Colfax, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Gilbert Royal McIntyre, Thornton.
There were four selectees called who did not report to the local draft board. They were Terry Inglis Walker, transferred to the Tacoma board; Roland Francis Hollenbach, Seattle, who had already enlisted in the navy; Ivan Lincoln Gall, Cohagen, Mont., and Eugene Jacob Goldman, Los Angeles, Calif., who reported to boards in their respective states.
Transferred to the Colfax board were Albert Donald McKinney, Colfax, from Colville, and Marvin Raymond Steward, Pullman, from Seattle.
Scheduled to make up the second contingent are 20 men who will leave here this Friday morning. Their number includes a transfer from Seattle, Kenneth C. Roberts, for the past year a news writer on the staff of the Colfax Gazette-Commoner.
The Whitman County registrants to go include three Colfaxites, Oliver Charles Heffner, Emanuel Frederic (Buddy) Gross, and Jacob Barber. Others are Herman Gustav Oldenburg, Seattle; Wilbur Byron Scott, St. John; Virgil Leroy Spores, Tekoa; Harry Wynee, Palouse; Albert Rauber, Colton; Carl Thomas Hill, Farmington; Donald Morris Dalky, Garfield; Vern Silven Sweet, Tekoa; Neil Garland Guptil, Princeton, Idaho; Cecil Laverne Morford, Tekoa; Claude Lehrbas, Winona; Roger Williams Schreiber, Riparia; William Vincent Mattus, Lacrosse; Gregory Stanberg Smith, Tekoa; John Joseph Kirpes, Colton, and Ray Lewis Radkey, Pullman.
50 years ago
Colfax Gazette
April 27, 1967
Take a good look at what a million yards of concrete looks like.
At least, there will be a million yards of concrete rising from the bedrock of the Snake river near Riparia by 11 a.m. next Monday, according to the corps of engineers.
The millionth yard on Little Goose Dam, locks and powerhouse will be poured at that time, and workmen may take a “short breather” while the press records the event on film...and then will probably begin a big spurt toward the second million.
A “lunch” of prime ribs of beef will be served at the construction headquarters at noon to officials of the contracting firm, representatives of the corps of engineers and others, following a tour of the dam project after the concrete pour.
“Tex” Witherspoon, public relations officer with the corps, told the Gazette this week that the Little Goose project is currently 46 per cent complete “money wise.” Total cost of the project is estimated at $146 million, which means that approximately $67 million has already been spent.
After all the concrete is poured, the Snake will be diverted through the dam and the gap between the concrete and the Whitman County shore will be completed with an earthen fill protected by rock.
***
Construction will resume on the Buck Canyon highway in the “middle of May” if the project benefits sufficiently from “drying weather” over the next few weeks, according to Walter R. Horning, district engineer for the state highway department.
Horning said members of state crews have checked the conditions on the Buck Canyon project and plan to “get at it as fast as we can.” The state issued a work suspension order on the project to N. A. Degerstrom after a series of rainstorms increased the slide danger in the area.
Buck Canyon's hillside project also has quite a surface draining problem, Horning said. Water comes off of the hill and collects in the ditches of the project.
“We'll just have to wait until it gets dry enough to do the work,” the district engineer said.
He said Degerstrom's work on the LaCrosse bypass project was “on schedule” with the two bridge structures now getting well underway.
Crews are now installing equipment to begin surfacing operations at the LaCrosse site, and Horning expects paving operations will begin within six weeks.
25 years ago
Colfax Gazette
April 23, 1992
The Palouse Empire Fair this week received confirmation of a $22,000 grant from the state's fair commission. Fair board members sought the grant at a Feb. 28 hearing in Moses Lake to fund completion of the horse barn project.
Debbie Wells, fair manager, said the grant means the fair should get the project done before this year's fair. Fencing, a warmup area for horses, and extensive electrical improvements are all part of the project.
The project last year to move the horse barns sustained several cuts when the state funding was awarded at half the anticipated level.
The fair April 4 earned about $13,000 on the consignment auction. A portion of that fund will be used to match the state grant. Also, labor and equipment will be used as a match on the project.
Wells said a portion of the $13,000 from the auction could land in a reserve account to underwrite future improvement projects on the grounds.
***
A non-binding advisory ballot on the Pullman-Moscow corridor is possible under state law, according the county planner Mark Bordsen. He still needs to check whether voters could rank land uses in order of preference or if the ballot must list a yes-or-no question, Bordsen added.
The county commissioners asked Bordsen two weeks ago to research the possibility of a referendum on land uses in the corridor.
The commissioners' idea is to rank the uses in order of preference to give the county some direction for land use in the corridor.
Five preferred uses for the area in the county's comprehensive plan are protecting the scenery, not increasing the traffic, promoting economic development, developing a bike path, and preserving existing land uses.
The commissioners have noted some of those uses are in conflict, but they have not made any decisions yet.
10 years ago
Whitman County Gazette
April 26, 2007
Projects in Colfax and Palouse were listed for over $350,000 from the state's capital budget as the legislature closed its session Sunday.
“Well, hopefully these projects will help the community,” said 9th District Representative David Buri of Colfax. “It's neat when you can help out the old hometown.”
The budget dedicated $210,000 to Palouse's Whitman Street project and $150,000 to add lights at the McDonald Park playing field in Colfax.
“Bless their little hearts,” said Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove. “I so thank Senator Schoesler, Representative Buri and Representative Hailey for making the commitment to improve our rail infrastructure.”
Colfax Mayor Norma Becker also expressed gratitude.
“I'm real thankful to Dave. This is something that everyone's worked real hard at,” said Becker. “This will really be a great thing for Colfax. To open up some night games down there will really help the town out a lot.”
Buri also noted the team approach.
“All along this has been a team effort. It's our own 'Field of Dreams,'” said Buri.
McDonald Park funding was included in the house capital budget, but the original senate version did not include the lights. Palouse's project came out of the senate.
Buri noted projects in the capital budget can advance on merit despite the political lineup of the legislature.
“The capital budget usually has a lot of bipartisan support. All you can do is let people know what's important to you and your communities and see how it works out.”
Buri expressed the importance of the lights to several senators and the fact that the projects were strongly supported by Colfax and Palouse helped sway some votes in favor.
“If you have a community buy-in, that really helps push things through,” said Buri. “The fact that the land was donated and all the volunteer work to get the field in the condition it is now made it an easy sell.”
Support from local entities also helped push Palouse's project through the budget process.
“Michael is one, if not the best small town mayor in the state,” said Buri. “It really helps to have a voice like his to help get this done.”
Echanove went straight to the legislature to cement Palouse's funding. He credited staffers from Gov. Chris Gregoire's office for tutoring him in the ways of lobbying support.
“I really want to thank Joe Satira and Sheila Collins for helping to guide me through the legislative process,” he said.
The Palouse funding will replace nearly 600 feet of rail running through downtown. Bennett Lumber uses the line to transport lumber through Palouse from Potlatch to Spokane.
Echanove said the funding from the capital budget provides the final piece of the city's Whitman Street Reconstruction project. Last November, the Transportation Improvement Board awarded Palouse $455,000 for the project. The city will chip in a local match of $35,000.
The $700,000 project will tear up the road, and the city will lay new water and sewer pipes then solidify the road and rail bed.
Echanove said designs for the project will be finished later this year, and construction will take place in summer 2008.
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